Two Congressmen in Texas are buckling down and focusing on real legislation. In this case, it’s attempting to make the “so help me god” part of the Air Force honor code mandatory once more:

Two Texas Congressmen are teaming up to reinstate a religious phrase in an Air Force Academy honor code that was recently removed after a complaint.

Republicans Sam Johnson of Plano and Pete Olson of Sugar Land introduced a bill last week to require Congressional approval before any changes may be made to oaths to enlist in the Armed Forces.

Their legislation comes on the heels of a decision by the Air Force Academy on Oct. 25 to allow cadets taking their honor code to opt out of saying “so help me God” at the end of the oath.

Because nobody can lie if they do so with religious affirmation.

Olson, a former Navy pilot, said military personnel who undergo stressful training to prepare for protecting the nation should be allowed to exercise their religious freedoms.

They’re allowed to do so, but people who don’t affirm their faith aren’t required to say it. You’re confusing being allowed to say the words with being forced to say them.

Johnson spent seven years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, during which time he said he found strength in God.

“I can tell you from experience, there are no atheists in foxholes,” Johnson said in a statement. “Many people don’t know this but when you survive a near-death experience you realize that the only thing you had to hold on to was your faith in God.”

2. Not everybody is so paralyzed by fear that they reach for a crutch. How insulting to our atheist troops to say that when the chips are down they’ll abandon who they are. Who can say the things Johnson is saying and simultaneously care to love the troops? Plenty of people have survived near-death experiences and not changed their beliefs in god a bit. Many more die without abdicating a life of rejecting the claims of religions at their fittest. This is when, if evangelists had any integrity, they should want to convince people. It is purveyors of cons and untruths who actively seek to convince people at their weakest, when their critical faculties are not operating at full.

“It’s not only my experience, but that of my fellow POWs, veterans, and those currently in harm’s way that make ‘so help me God’ vital to the oath,” Johnson said. “I urge my colleagues to join this effort to protect the legacy of freedom of religion.”

Because your experience should be the basis for the rules for everybody, even when those people have different experiences and sources of strength that do not include the untrue. Perhaps the next bill should require our soldiers to be self-centered in the extreme to sync with Sam Johnson’s experience.

When not defending the planet from inevitable apocalypse at the rotting hands of the undead, JT is a writer and public speaker about atheism, gay rights, and more. He spent two and a half years with the Secular Student Alliance as their first high school organizer. During that time he built the SSA’s high school program and oversaw the development of groups nationwide. JT is also the co-founder of the popular Skepticon conference and served as the events lead organizer during its first three years.

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